Myth BUSTED: Does a Big Engine Get Better Fuel Economy TOWING Than a Small Engine? 

Hey all, quick editing mistake. At the end the font says "V6" for the ranger, clearly it is a 4 cylinder. Our apologies!

Would be interesting to test the Ranger against an F150 Eco Boost 3.5 and a 5.0 V8. The Raptor R is not what the average person would buy to tow with.

I would really love to see a test of the exact same truck with different size engines. Say the f-150 with the 2.7 vs. the f-150 with the 5.0. That way, aerodynamics are practical the same on each truck.

I love that you went through the whole issue with load balancing and sway. Something everyone benefits from seeing and learning.

When they built the raptor r they were not concerned with fuel mileage. A better test would be with a f150 with the 5.0. But the raptor did get better fuel mileage than I thought. I was thinking high 6 low 7.

The tire size, axle ratio, and transmission play such vital impact on this that there's no thorough way to test this in such a short video

If I ever becomes possible a second run of this test with a 2.7 vs 5.3 or 6.2 in a silverado would be really apples to apples. A mid size vs full size truck has to many variables. Still a great video though.

A more relevant comparison is GM 2.7 vs 5.3 or Ford 2.7/3.5 vs 5.0. In my experience a 3.5 will pull like an effortless brute, but use more fuel than 5.0 and the 5.0 just doesn’t have the same grunt

2:42 I thought the ranger was a 4 cylinder?

It'd be great to see the 4cyl silverado vs the 5.3.

Would like to see the 2.7L ecoboost in the F150 vs the 5.0

I'd like to see the same test with the Ranger vs. the work truck. And then calculate the % lost per vehicle in regards to MPG. I feel that would give a more accurate picture to mid-size vs. full-size.

Its really hard to make a good comparison here with two different sizes of truck, etc. On paper you'd want to go with the smaller truck because its going to get better mileage when you're NOT towing, which is most of the time. However, towing more weight than your tow vehicle causes problems, as was shown with the trailer issue. BTW---*thank you guys* for taking trailer sway seriously. I totalled my new truck and trailer in a very scary crash last year, luckily walked away unscathed, and I dont want anyone else to ever have to go through that. BTW i thought I had it set up perfectly, was towing a lighter trailer than these guys with a heavier truck, had anti-sway bars, and it still happened. trailer sway is no joke.

Very good video, Thank You Andre and Nathan. Additionally, I am "Pleasantly" surprised that ranger is Not squatting while hooked up to that MAX loaded trailer ✌✌

When you tow with an Ecoboost anything lock out 9 & 10.. Maybe even 8th. Boost equals worse mpgs. The added rpms will help mpgs. Upgraded intercooler helps immensely too. I dumped my 2021 Ranger for a 2022 Ford f-150 2.7 because of that tiny fuel tank. While towing and getting 9 mpg you're stopping all the time. I love the 36 gallon tank in the F-150

I really cant believe the Ranger did that well. I have a 2012 150 with the 3.5 and I bet I would have gotten about 8mpg on that tow. Very impressed with the ranger and 4 banger and to top it off it actually looked like it was pulling the load quite well .

You guys got close to the correct answer there at the end. Thr efficiency difference between the two is really the delta for each between their unladen MPG and their towing MPG. The RaptoR lost about 23% efficiency and the Ranger lost about 57%. Therefore, the RaptoR is more efficient.

Great video as always guys. My 2020 F150 with Super Crew, 5 liter and 5.5 ft bed, with 4x4 only has a 7,500 tow limit. A friends 2020 Ford Ranger 4 cylinder turbo 4x4 has the same 7,500 lb tow rating.

As a previous generation Raptor owner, you don’t buy a Raptor to tow. You buy a Raptor to HAVE a Raptor, but you need to do everything your old F150 did and more. PS I think the 3.5L Raptor would have had a better MPG than the Ranger! Thanks for the fun comparison

That load was really pushing the little 2.3 to the max of its abilities and it still got over 9mpg. The 5.2, as you alluded, barely knew it had a load on. If you were towing that kind of load all the time, the Ranger probably isn't the best for the job. A full size would be. But if you only did that 2-3 time a year and 95%+ of your miles were empty at 20+mpg combined. Dang, what a great solution the Ranger is for that scenario. Please do the same test with the Ranger vs Nathan's Santa Cruz and a 2000lbs (or whatever it can tow) trailer. It would be fun to see the result of that.

Awesome video I own a 2021 Ford Ranger and I love it. Thank you guys for all you do. God bless you

I enjoy your videos keep up the good work😎 I was amazed they were that close😳

Great video thank you. It was uploaded two weeks ago and mysteriously I missed it. And I still love the Buhanka!

Very interesting test. Still great video, guys. I would love to see the same test with the GM trucks: 2.7L HO, Colorado vs. Silverado 2.7L HO vs. 2.7L+, Colorado/Canyon 2.7L HO Colorado vs. Silverado Diesel 5.3L vs. 6.2L, Silverado/Sierra

I’ve seen many Ranger owners brag about how good the truck can tow. I think it has more to do with it was a global truck and the biggest truck in many markets. Over there it is also rated for more weight than we have it for here. So overall I think it’s a great choice for a occasional hauler.

Thank you for doing more towing content. My 2.7 ecoboost was better unloaded by quite a bit then other trucks I've owned. While towing, it was the worst. Of course, the 6.0 v8 chevy only made 360tq at best when spinning 2800rpm in 3rd up a hill, whereas the 2.7 with a tune on 87 octane was making over 400tq by 2200rpm

I think this test should of been done with a normal F150. I towed 9500 pounds with my 2021 f150 with a 5.0 coyote from Colorado springs to east TN and averaged 11.8 ( I used the same fill up method as them ) I suppose driving the interstate would of affected the numbers but I also pulled over to sleep in my truck with the truck running while I slept

Intro card to the Ranger tow says “small displacement V6”? Did you engine swap it and not tell anyone? 😂

For all tests you should use the same high quality fuel. So you the priemun fuel for every test with a petrol engine.

You guys should've at leased used the same truck, with different engines. Silly silly😝 I always love Andre and Nathan together lol. Great video as usual!

Long time subscriber and love the videos! The real comparison should be the same vehicle with two engine options… such as a Silverado with the crappy 4 cylinder compared to a Silverado with the 6.2 V8. And also the amount of towing should be the same percentage of the vehicles maximum towing capacity. Just my two cents 😊

Love these videos, very interesting. 👍🏻👍🏻

I LOVE THIS VIDEO ! Please do it with every brand. Example the Ridgeline vs pilot or passport, Colorado vs Silverado , tundra vs Tacoma!!

Very nice , I can tell you my 2019’ranger gets the mpg of a full size v8 truck towing my trailer . I tow a 30ft 5k lb travel trailer up and down the mountains of Arizona and the worst mpg I’ve gotten was 7mpg and the best was 10mpg towing on straight flat freeway . Besides having to carry extra fuel I have had no issues towing or driving up or down steep inclines

Great video! Interesting results. I'd like to see what we would get if we were to use identical full sized Chevy or Ford trucks but just changed motor size. Compare the 4 cyl turbos and 6 cylinder models to each other and to the V8 models using the same basic full size (and same equipment) trucks

Great video guys!!!! That Ranger is impressive! Wish they had a cre cab with 6 foot bed.

Interesting tow test. Enjoyed the results but it left me wondering what would be like with the 5.0 F150 non Raptor.

Would like to see the TRX Ram milage on this loop compared to the Raptor R.

Thank you for this! Love it!

That ranger is impressive. I’d like to see it stacked up against the Tacoma, I think we already know how that will go.

It's all great that you're doing tons of videos about towing and off roading. Trouble for me is you almost totally ignore snow plowing, especially with a 1/2 ton. It's getting harder and harder to know if a truck is capable of snow plowing with all these new engine choices! I for one don't haul around huge trailers or go insane off roading. I want my truck as an everyday ride plus the weekend warrior bit. Here's the biggest issue, manufacturers are doing what your doing. Focusing on towing and off roading. The trucks are being made to have more and more ground clearance to the point a 3/4 ton won't fit through the average garage door height opening! Crazy! I for one live in an area that gets lots of snow and I'd like to keep my truck in the garage and not have to clear snow off it every 5 minutes. So a 1/2 ton works for me and It's getting harder to know if the new trucks with these smaller engines can still plow snow. Example the new Tundra. I for one like having an 8 cylinder without E-Torque nonsense to plow snow with. So what I'm trying to ask is for you to not ignore this aspect of truck owners, the one who only needs a 1/2 ton because we're not plowing as a business just for our own property. I hope you can do this. Thanks for all your videos that you do anyway, they're still entertaining.

Should consider the unladened MPG on the loop for each vs. the towing MPG on the loop for each and then calculate percentage degradation to the MPG for each. That would show whether the theory of smaller engines working harder are worse than big engine doing same work. The Raptor already had a worse MPG to start based on weight and engine size vs the Ranger. Always fun watching content regardless. Keep it up

For a more apples to apples comparison, my brother and I had identical trucks except mine had the smallest gas V8 option and his had the biggest. I rarely hauled or towed much while he frequently towed roughly 10,000 pounds. With no load my truck averaged about 3 mpg more than his. One day his water pump failed and I towed his trailer with my truck while his truck was towed to a shop. My truck got about half the mpg towing that trailer as his did. Our conclusion was we both had the right engine options for our different needs but in the case of those two trucks, for towing bigger was definitely better. In this video I think it still says a lot that the Ranger lost over half of its unloaded mpg when towing while the Raptor starts with pretty bad mpg but loses a much lower percentage when towing.

First off, ive said this b4 and ill say it again...Nathan is the king of automotive enuendo!! I think its a good test for these two vehicles but not to bust the myth. To do that id like to see a v8 yote f150 vs this ranger. That would be a better test bcuz the yote's mpg isnt so dern close to the rangers towing mpg outcome. Keep up the great work guys!

I tow with my 21-F150 5.0/3.31. It’s always been with my old Defender on an auto trailer. Best mpg 14.2 if I keep below 60, but I plan on 12 and drive at speed limits which is mostly 65 or 70. I scaled everything on last trip, 12,160lbs with full tank, me and all my off road gear.

My 17 F150 2.7 w/ 6spd trans towing a Miata, 2000lb trailer, full bed of luggage and 4 people averaged 14mpg from Nebraska to Florida and 14.5mpg empty trailer Florida to Nebraska

Speaking of optimistic MPG computers, I had a Crosstrek a couple years ago. It would say I would get like 42 mpg open highway from gas station to gas station and I’d calculate it out at the pump like you do and I’d get like 35. Made me mad every time. Like how can it be off THAT much?

What did I learn? Um, nothing new. But for a lot of people that are trying to answer the question of what would be better for them, this does not shed a ton of light on a great efficiency difference. Variables for every trip and scenario are going to be so drastically different to this test, it is hard to still find the answer. But IF you drive mostly unladen, don't care about the looks and sound of a big V8, sure, don't bother with it. Save a few pennies in purchase price. Save a few pennies in gas. Save a few pennies in operating costs.(tires, oil, etc) But IF you are towing 3-7 days a week, I would opt. for V8 performance. Better to have what you need when you need it, than struggle for it in something less. 😉

My experience is you get about half your highway mpg towing a TT weighing 75% of max tow weight at 60 mph. The towing experience is much better in a full size truck at the expense of having a larger truck than needed for everyday use. Thanks for sharing.

I think this is the last TFL video for the Buhanka

All things equal, the science should say that for a given weight, it takes x amount of energy to move it regardless whether it is a V8, V6.

I pulled my friends 29' camper,7500#, up to Lake Erie. My 2010 ,4x4 ,5.7 v-8 ,Toyota Tundra got 9.5 mpg going 65 in heavy cross winds. I expected 8 mpg ! I had a car hauler pass me and it got severe sway, I got on the brakes and it straightened out at 45 mph. Had I had a small truck, I don't I would have saved it!!!

im not surprised that the ranger was more efficient but there is so much more going on here than just small vs big displacement.

Reason the straps were loose on 2nd run is because the warmer frame was on the trailered rig :) Ha did ya know a Rail on a train track is 30 ft long and will stretch out 3 inch in the heat of the day ? anyways... my guess any frame expansion would be compensated by the trailer frame stretching. real problem is you bent the frame on the trailered rig, (appreciate the testing you do guys) :)

Here i am in Commiefornia and not allowed to tow a trailer past 55 mph....😅I agree with other commenters regarding restarting the Ranger for most accurate mpg (though that would probably only change around +.5-1.5 gallon per mile). I would only consider a full sized if I was towing most of the time. If I was only towing once ina while I would get the mid sized, when you dont have load the mpg is pretty much doubled with smaller truck benefits.

You nailed it Nathan!

There are so many factors that affect fuel economy - it's hard to compare one to another. Smaller engines are getting better, but you can't really compare a 1.4L to an 8.1L, for example. If they're both forced induction and built well - to the same specs, the 8.1L will always have more power but may not always have better economy. The 1.4L can be great for toodling around town in a mid size vehicle, but it can't tow the same weight a large engine can. Try to tow 15000lbs with a 1.4L and it just won't. The 8.1L will handle it just fine.

Miss my Colorado diesel. Pulling my lifted Toyota trail truck with a roof top tent on the Colorado, I would get 13-14 mpg. GCW was 12,400.

I have an 09 f150, with the 5.4.,fx4 with air bags......tow from sedro-woolley Washington to Merritt BC, over mountains... Average 12-13mpg. I tow 1600lbs trailer, witH 2300 lbs racecar.

You guys talking about the sway and fixing it. It looked wrong when I first saw it on the ranger.

Se drove to Tennessee from Florida in two cars . My truc is a 2020 ram rebel 1500 and my friend has a Mitsubishi outlander. We used exactly the same amount of gas even with my truck 5.7l engine. The reason was that when we were in flat terrain he’s car was better than mine but when we hit the mountains he’s car was in first and second gear all the time my truck was in 4 and 5 gear

Great stuff. I wonder what a toyota sienna hybrid would get for mpg towing 3500lb rv. Wondering what the best mpg road tripper is?

My Silverado with the slug 5.3 struggled to pull 10,000 pounds of trailer and, at best, got 21 mpg. Dumped it for a 3.5 Ecobeast. Like night and day pulling and got 15 mpg with the Ford. Never looked back.

When paying attention in school pays off. Woot!!

The Supercharger has its own cooling system. Hence the separate coolant tank.

Wish it was a typical f150 vs the ranger, the raptor wasn’t made for gas mileage or towing.

I would also like to see this against the 3.5L Ecoboost and a normal 5.0L F-150. Obviously a cool video, but Ford is going to sell oodles more of those other trucks than the Raptor R (as much as most of us would probably love to have it).

I had a 98’ B4000 (same as a Ranger) and I remember reading a review that the bigger 4.0 V6 actually got better mpg than the 3.0 V6. The review claimed that the 4.0 had better low end torque, so you didn’t have to give it as much throttle to accelerate. I found that to be very true. I’d always get 1 mpg better than my friend with the 3.0, and we had pretty similar driving styles and everything. In this comparison, the Ranger loses a much higher percentage of mpg compared to the Raptor. Going from 21 to 9 is way worse than going 11-12 to 8.

Wow those orange graphics on the Ranger are something.

The Buhanca is mid engine so when you lined the front bumper to where you thought the weight would be good but the engine is back almost centre. Good lesson is that any load in your thing you are towing might be unbalanced because of the junk inside the thing you're towing

I like to see an gas HD truck try this test. My 2016 power wagon got better towing mpg than my current Tundra.

19:46 This is typical turbo charger versus super charger efficiency. The super chargers will always lose the efficiency challenge. They make power using a belt off of the crank. Like everyone else is saying in order for this to be a fair test, you would have to have two turbo charged engines in the same size truck. Super chargers are only designed for racing applications. They make boost instantly that’s their main benefit turbos used waste gas to produce boost, making them worlds more efficient. don’t get me wrong I’m not hating on the Contant. I would just rather the videos not mislead people telling them that this is a fair test of large versus small displacement. That’s all.

In reality it depends on how often you’re gonna be towing. If you’re gonna go most of the time with no to little load get the ranger, if you’re doing to tow every/most weekends get a full-size truck, and if it’s going to be your profession get a diesel truck instead

I realize that these are the trucks you used because these are the trucks you have onhand. That being said, it makes me interested to see a video that's a little more apples to apples. The Raptor R is really a worst case scenario with the big lift, degraded aerodynamics, large tires and supercharger.

I find it interesting how thirsty these new motors are. My 99 GMC Yukon with a solid axle swap and 35" tires gets 15 mpg on the highway, and pulling a 4,500 lb travel trailer it'll get 10 mpg. But then I don't push it to 75 while pulling said trailer, I only do about 60-65. Oh and shout-out to all those of us dinosaurs still using old school face watches

I'd wager that the difference in mpg is mostly just due to the aero drag difference between smaller frontal area and smaller tires vs what's basically a Super Duty in the wind. If the aero drag was equal, I'd bet $20 the mpg towing that same load would also be identical.

% change in mpg would give an indication of how hard the job was for each truck

You should have checked the noise level in the cabs while pulling! The Rapture sounded real loud!

That R sounds so good towing! I'm a tall guy so I would have to use the f150!

I would like to see the ford 2.7 ecoboost towing

wow who would have thought a 600hp truck was thirsty!

I seen all your comparisons with the Santa Cruz and maverick. I'd love to see how the Santa Cruz compares to the ranger.

In California you can not tow that trailer with a ranger Chp will stop you... Must have at least a 2500

That’s shocking! When you guys did the MPG loop with the TRX, you towed more weight and went faster and STILL got 10mpg. The Raptor R is WAY worse at towing than the TRX it looks like.

I wonder if the fuel economy would change with the baffles being in quiet mode vs Baja mode.

Do they still produce Buhunka Trucks? Some of that old Soviet stuffs pretty cool. UAZ seems like a good brand.

Holy cow!!! Gas prices!!!!! Glad I live in South Carolina....

V6 ranger @ 19:38 ?! Just kidding guys. Love your videos!

While they used trucks on hand, this would more realistic to compare the turbo engine with a naturally aspirated engine otherwise identical trucks. So you're really limited to the GM 5.3 versus their turbo 4 and the Eco-boost V6 versus Coyote.

If you know that towing is something you're going to do a lot of, then diesel is the way to go. Even though the price per gallon is sometimes above gasoline these days, you get more miles per gallon. And loads more torque. But if you mostly use your truck as a car and rarely tow with it, then don't worry about the fuel economy of gasoline trucks under load. A few weekends every summer won't break the bank.

More work requires more fuel thats a no brainer. "Work" is all factors affecting moving an object from point A to B. Good test though to show people to get the right "tool" for the job "they" have to do. More options is better than the narrow market we are heading towards.

Check your editing - in multiple places in the video, the script graphics state the Ranger is a small displacement "V6". Obviously Blaze handled the video editing and he is not clear on the Ranger's "I4" configuration.

Ford Ranger owner’s manual: Turn off the speed control with heavy loads or in hilly terrain. The speed control may turn off automatically when you are towing on long, steep grades. 2023 Ford F-150 owner’s manual says the same thing

Before watching the video, my guess is they’re probably pretty close in terms of miles per gallon if they are towing the same amount of weight including their own vehicle.

The ranger is a really good tow vehicle regardless of the test results i haven't seen yet.

Nearly 15% more fuel is significant. Even more significant is an almost guaranteed US14mpg doing the same towing job with a four cylinder twin turbo Ranger diesel automatic where available.

Cool test, but I really wish it was with a regular f150. I get it, your looking at total extremes, and the raptor is that, but when it comes to towing, the average guys extreme is either a 3.5 Ecoboost or the 5.0. can you do it again with either of those two engine or both?? Please! Lol

Can you do the same test with each vehicle carrying the same ratio weight of their capacity?

I want to see Y'all test old school 460 vs 454 towing efficiency

Did they redo the whole ranger test once they fixed the sway issue? Did i miss that?